1. THE food and strength contained in stone and mountain, drink gathered from the plants and trees and waters, That food and strength, Maruts! free-givers, grant us. In the stone is thy hunger. In me is thy food. Let thy pain reach the man we hate.
2. O Agni, may these bricks be mine own milch kine: one, and ten, and ten tens, a hundred, and ten hundreds, a thousand, and ten thousand a myriad, and a hundred thousand, and a million, and a hundred millions, and an ocean middle and end, and a hundred thousand millions, and a billion. May these bricks be mine own milch-kine in yonder world and in this world.
3. Ye are the Seasons, strengthening Law, fixed in due season, strengthening Law, Called Splendid, dropping butter down and honey, yielders of every wish, imperishable.
4. With the lake’s mantling need we robe thee, Agni: to us he purifying and auspicious.
5 With cold’s investing garb we gird thee, Agni: to us be purifying and auspicious.
6. Descend upon the earth, the reed, the rivers: thou art the gall, O Agni, of the waters. With them come hither, female Frog, and render this sacrifice of ours bright-hued, successful.
7. This is the place where waters meet; here is the gathering of the flood. Let thy shaft burn others than us: be thou cleanser, propitious unto us.
8. O Agni, purifier, God, with splendour and thy pleasant tongue Bring hither, and adore, the Gods.
9. So, Agni, purifying, bright, bring hither to our sacrifice, To our oblation bring the Gods.
10. He who with purifying, eye-attracting form hath shone upon the earth as with the light of Dawn; Who speeding on, as in the fleet steed’s race, in fight, cometh untouched by age, as one athirst in heat.
11. Obeisance to thy wrath and glow! Obeisance to thy fiery flame! Let thy shot missiles burn others than us: be thou cleanser, propitious unto us.
12. To him who dwells in man, Hail! To him who dwells in waters, Hail! To him who dwells in sacred grass, Hail! To him who dwells in the wood, Hail! To him who finds the light, Hail!
13. Worshipful Gods of Gods who merit worship, those who sit down beside their yearly portion, Let them who eat not sacrificial presents drink in this rite of honey and of butter.
14. Those Gods who have attained to Godhead over Gods, they who have led the way in this our holy work, Without whose aid no body whatsoever moves, not on heaven’s heights are they, nor on the face of earth.
15. Giver of breath, of out-breath, breath diffusive, giver of lustre, giving room and freedom, Let thy shot missiles burn others than us: be thou cleanser, propitious unto us.
16. May Agni with his sharpened blaze cast down each fierce devouring fiend. May Agni win us wealth by war.
17. He who sate down as Hotar priest, the Rishi, our Father offering, up all things existent He, seeking with his wish a great possession, came among men on earth as archetypal.
18. What was the place whereon he took his station? What was it that upheld him? What the manner, Whence Visvakarman, seeing all, producing the earth, with mighty power disclosed the heavens?
19. He who hath eyes on all sides round about him, a mouth on all sides, arms and feet on all sides, He the sole God, producing earth and heaven, weldeth them with his arms as wings together.
20. What was the tree, what wood in sooth produced it, from which they fashioned out the earth and heaven? Ye thoughtful men, inquire within your spirit whereon he stood when he established all things.
21. Thine highest, lowest sacrificial natures, and these thy midmost here, O Visvakarman, Teach thou thy friends at sacrifice, O Blessèd, and come thy- self, exalted, to our worship.
22. Bring those, thyself exalted with oblation, O Visvakarman, Earth and Heaven to worship. Let enemies around us live in folly: here let us have a rich and liberal patron.
23, 24. = VIII. 45, 46.
25. The Father of the eye, the Wise in spirit, created both these worlds submerged in fatness. Then when the eastern ends were firmly fastened, the heavens and the earth were far extended.
26. Mighty in mind and power is Visvakarman, Maker, Disposer, and most lofty Presence.Their offerings joy in rich juice where they value One, only One beyond the Seven Rishis.
27. Father who made us, he who, as Disposer, knoweth all races and all things existing, Even he alone, the Deities’ name-giver,—him other beings seek for information.
28. To him in sacrifice they offered treasures,—Rishis of old, in numerous troops, as singers, Who, in the distant, near, and lower region, made ready all these things that have existence.
29. That which is earlier than this earth and heaven, before the Asuras and Gods had being, What was the germ primeval which the waters received where the first Gods beheld each other?